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Kashmir

A landmark consensus agreed by Islamic scholars (Ulema) regarding the waiting period for ‘half-widows’ to remarry in four years will have an unprecedented impact on the lives of Kashmir’s forgotten survivors. Decades of conflict have produced many half-widows, women whose husbands have disappeared but are not yet declared deceased.

Twenty two years and six months is probably enoughtimeforIndiatothinkithaspoliced memoriesandfosteredinstitutionalized forgetfulnessinIndian administeredKashmir.Butsucheffortshaveprovencounterproductive.

An Islamist women's separatist group in Jammu and Kashmir said yesterday it would begin training Muslim women in martial arts and called on women to carry daggers to fend off sexual attacks by soldiers.